With the 3010, there appears to be no overhang on notes. They start and stop on a dime, but always in the most refined manner. If there is a good deal of pedal applied to a piano note, it will linger in the air but then terminate in a gentle but definite fashion into black space. If grace notes are there, they will appear for a fleeting second, only to disappear into the ether. Put otherwise, the 3010 is an exacting preamplifier. There is no escape from its authority. Each finger stroke of a piano key, gentle or ferocious, will be rendered with complete precision. Tympani strikes emerge with well-nigh annihilatory power. Overall, the alacrity and crunch of the 3010 preamplifier endow it with a lifelike character.

Another attribute that the 3010 displayed was tonal fidelity. It almost goes without saying that the Boulder plunges into the bass region with great power. What distinguishes it here is the way it captures the ringing peal of the organ in the nether regions. On the Hungarian trumpeter Gabor Boldoczki’s CD Gloria, the organ played by the German virtuoso Hedwig Bilgram, who, incidentally, accompanied the French legend Maurice André on a number of his recordings, swells with a lustrous sound. At the same time, Boldoczki’s piccolo trumpet has on a Purcell sonata for trumpet and organ a nasal quality that nothing I’ve previously used has captured to this extent. On a rendition of “Ave Maria” by the composer Guilio Caccini, the 3010 delivers the vibrato and sumptuous tone of Boldoczki’s playing with commendable fidelity. This ability to convey the ebb and flow of the music came to the fore in a recording by the pianist Igor Levit for Sony of Bach Partitas. The precision and delicacy, the shadings and slight hint of rubato, were all furnished by the 3010 in spades. Rather than seeming to be reproduced mechanically, the Partitas had a beguilingly mellifluous singing quality. Similarly, on a recording on the Hyperion label of Schubert songs by the Austrian baritone Florian Boesch, it was hard not to marvel at the nuances in his supple and full-grained voice, which the Boulder offered with ease.

Given the ability of the Boulder preamp to ramp it up to seemingly limitless volume levels, I couldn’t resist cranking it on Wynton Marsalis’ sizzling CD from the new Buddy Bolden movie soundtrack. His version of “Stardust” contains some of the greatest jazz trumpet solos that I’ve heard, and the Boulder let them rip without any compression. On another cut, “Phantasmagoric Bordello Ballet,” the ability of the Boulder to sort out complex musical passages also came to the fore. The crack of the drumstick in the rear of the soundstage was reproduced with superb dynamic punch, not to mention Marsalis’ wah-wah mute passages, where every screech and groan and moan was fully audible. “Woah, woah!” is what I was thinking. Frankly, I doubt that New Orleans jazz has ever before been recorded at this level of sheer technical virtuosity.

So what really let the Boulder strut its stuff? One of the most impressive albums I heard on it was the soundtrack of Super Fly with Curtis Mayfield. If one album lets you know that this equipment isn’t playing around, this is it. Take the track “Pusherman.” The deep, fat, and sassy electronic bass instantly emerges with propulsive power. The drums in back possess crushing impact. At the very same time, Mayfield’s crooning voice loses none of its insinuating silkiness as he announces, “I’m your pusherman.” Once again, total relaxation allied to stygian power.

Link do recenzji: Boulder 3010 – The Absolute Sound

Link: Boulder 3010 – The Absolute Sound – Editors' Choice 2023